Chelmsford County High School for Girls

Study and revision help

Current students

Learning styles

It may never have occurred to you that people learn in different ways. Now is a good time to look at your study habits and work out the best way for you. You are going to spend hundreds of hours studying at school so it seems reasonable to do it in the most efficient way.

Although various "experts" differ in the terms they use there is a general agreement that the brains of individuals differ and that they learn in different ways.

Which of these is most like you?

Dynamic Learners...

• like to try things out and don't worry about getting it wrong
• enjoy variety and look for excitement
• are keen to take action and get others involved
• don't want to plan and don't want to check work
• manage their time badly

Common Sense Learners...

• read instructions carefully and organise their time well
• enjoy solving problems by integrating theory and practice
• work well alone, are thorough and decisive
• like doing things their way but are not very imaginative
• want to get the job done but don't like being given answers

Imaginative Learners...

• like to see the whole picture and see relationships between ideas
• enjoy brainstorming sessions and using their imagination
• listen well and like group work
• work in fits and starts and forget important details
• are easily distracted and indecisive

Analytic Learners...

• are well organised and can work alone
• are analytical and logical and see links between ideas
• set clear goals and apply theories to problems
• don't like group discussion
• get bogged down in detail

If you see yourself as an analytical learner you will choose to work in a much more step-wise way than say a dynamic learner - who will be shooting from idea to idea. There is no judgement here of what is best - if you are an imaginative learner then to force the analyst's methods on you would be daft - you just don't learn well using those methods. The trick is to work out the way that suits you.

The VAK Classification

• V is for visual learning - you like pictures, diagrams etc. When you learn (or try to explain to others) you use pictures - you wave your arms about and draw in the air. You can "see" where things were in the text book when you are thinking of them.
• A is for auditory learning - you are good at getting understanding through the written word and through listening (and talking). (Lots of teachers are themselves auditory learners so teach in that way and this obviously isn't ideal for 66% of students)
• K is for kinaesthetic learning - this is learning by doing - your muscles and senses feed information into your brain. This isn't just to do with learning physical skills (like those required for the practical exam) but also helps other learning. For instance some people associate where they were and what else they were doing when learning something.

As you can see there is considerable overlap between these classifications.

Anyway - how does all this help you?

Well - you may have struggled in the past to learn from written notes and assumed that you were a bit dim but in fact you might learn much better from annotated diagrams or even silly cartoons to show photosynthesis...it's ok...that's a great way to learn...go for it.

Try these ideas:

• Take a process (like photosynthesis) make a one A4 page flow chart/mind map out of it with cartoons.
• Take a skill (like making a microscope slide) and describe out loud to someone (or your cat or a tape if you are embarrassed) how to do it.
• Study a diagram of something (like the heart) for 5 minutes, go and do something else for half an hour, and then see how much you can redraw.
• Take a passage of text and use coloured highlighters to pick out the most important points. Set up a colour code now that you will use all the way through all studies. (Pink for facts to learn, green for formulae etc.) You can also use a code of margin references too.